This is fantastic advice!

My DS loved Zaccaro's Real World Algebra. Despite its title, I'd place it in the prealgebra category. I thought it was very much worth working through. FWIW, my DS isn't a fan of Fred either.

Bump. I'm curious for more ideas too.

I think the combo you have listed is just fine. In fact, it might even be more than you really need for a 3rd grader/7 yr old. My DS is now a 7th grader, for reference, and I do remember the anxiety I felt about covering all the bases when he was younger. You have plenty of time. ; ) I'd start with WWE2 and spelling. Add in readalouds if you both enjoy them, and also get her reading well on her own, if she isn't already. All that would make for a complete LA program for a 7 year old, IMO. I don't think you need to start a vocab program until spelling is solid; then drop spelling and swap in vocab in its place (middle-school-ish timeframe). (This is also what SWB recommends in WTM, by the way.) Reading good books goes a long way in vocab development, especially at her age. I also don't see much need for grammar beyond basic parts of speech and basic punctuation until around 4th or even 5th grade. There's plenty of time for that, they learn it faster when they're a bit older, and grammar repeats so much every year it really just isn't necessary yet. If you do decide to go ahead with grammar, Daily Grams doesn't contain any actual teaching, just fill in the blank style review, so it might be frustrating for her if she hasn't had (much) grammar before. But if she has, and DG doesn't frustrate her, it shouldn't take much time in your day.

Thank you so much for sharing!

I feel your pain. It would be nice to have printables, videos, activities, and primary sources all online in one place, but I haven't one source I like yet either. There's lots of primary source material at the Library of Congress website. http://www.loc.gov/ Have you seen World History for Us All? It isn't limited to US history but other facets of it seem to fit with building your own curriculum so maybe you could use some of it. http://worldhistoryforusall.sdsu.edu/ Or perhaps the free PBS resources, including videos and some games, that go with Hakim's A History of US. http://www.pbs.org/wnet/historyofus/ Hippocampus has US history videos too. http://www.hippocampus.org/HippoCampus/History%20%26%20Government I haven't personally used any of these, but have them bookmarked for future use. Maybe something here will help.

Math Without Borders offers video lessons that go with Foerster's series. http://mathwithoutborders.com

CW, do you happen to have a link to the Didax S&S? I found sample pages on their website but haven't located S&S. TIA! We've been successfully using Math Minutes to do this same type of daily review, but we've reached the end of that series (grade 8). Looks like Didax goes up to grade 10. And I haven't heard of it before, so thank you! :hurray:

I didn't use SWI-A, but my DS used SWI-B in 5th grade (age 10/11), and I had him spend no more than 30 minutes per day on it. Sometimes that meant the video lesson would be spread over two days instead of one, but I was fine with that. I watched it with him. On the days when there was no video lesson, just writing, same thing - 30 minutes max. We still finished the program before our "school year" was over. ETA - The teacher materials that come in the package do have suggested pacing. I'd recommend using that as a guide and adjust for your student as needed.

Yep, seconding Lyra. One of our best art purchases.

Thank you for posting this. We participated through DH's employer back when MS Office 2010 came out, and it worked well - very legit, smooth process. Its time for us to upgrade! :)

Quality Science Labs offers kits for middle and high school. I just bought this one (30 separate activities) for our life science study for the upcoming year: http://www.qualitysciencelabs.com/life-science-labs/life-science-kit-standard-edition/

This was our experience with Elemental Science as well. We do secular science here and I've actually used two ES logic stage packages: Earth Science/Astronomy and Biology. As someone else mentioned, the reading is scheduled from secular encyclopedias, such as Usborne and Kingfisher.

Walch Education has some independent, workbooky programs. Here's their World Geography: http://walch.com/Power-Basics-Singles-World-Geography.html

The Book Samaritan is one option with which I am familiar IRL. You'll have to pay shipping to get it to them though. You can get a donation receipt for tax purposes if you ask for it. They are centrally located in Oklahoma (not in Arkansas, but close) and used to serving tornado victims. They provide materials free of charge, including free shipping, to any family unable to afford them who makes a request. http://www.thebooksamaritan.com/

We like Sister Wendy here, both her books and her DVDs. She did a series on American art called Sister Wendy's American Collection. You might be able to find it on Netflix, YouTube, etc. Or check your library. There's also a free pdf curriculum guide/program called Meet the Masters. Not limited to American art, but you can access it here, might be worth a look: http://www.homeschoolfreebie.wholesomechildhood.com/meet-the-masters-art-appreciation-curriculum/

Just a thought, if you're interested in Blackbird and Co's Intro to Composition, you might want to just buy Thinking in Threes separately (not published by Blackbird, widely available at Amazon, etc. ), since it is quite inexpensive, and give it a go on its own. If you need or want more guidance and more exercises along the same lines, then spring for Blackbird's program. I bought Blackbird's program a few weeks ago, and in reading through it in detail now (the samples just aren't enough LOL), I wish I had just bought Thinking in Threes and saved a bundle. Interestingly, Thinking in Threes teaches many of the same concepts (sentence openers, -ly words, and other "dress-ups" to make the writing more interesting) that my son learned through IEW's Student Writing Intensive, which helped his writing a lot when we did that a year or so ago. Different packaging, same concepts. However, Blackbird's program also has a unit on literary analysis, using short children's stories/picture books, and admittedly I haven't examined that section in detail yet. I probably wouldn't have purchased it just for that unit, but since I have it now, I might run DS through it before doing the lit analysis in Writing With Skill. HTH.

If I attempted everything you have listed in your initial post, it would be too much here. I've found with my DS that churning out more writing doesn't equate to better writing. I like to refer to SWB's guidelines, summarized in this handout: http://www.welltrainedmind.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/06/writing-overview-expanded1.pdf I can't point to a source for this, but in my collection of HSing notes, I noted that SWB wrote somewhere that if you're using WWS, you should only add one outline (history or science), one narration (history or science), and one literary analysis per week, for a younger student. For an older student, follow step 4 in the guideline quoted below. On page 32 of the above-linked document, SWB details this for middle grades writing across the curriculum (assuming you're not using WWS):

We like Splash Math.

We used it. The optional supply kit contains sand with mica. The kit is very, very much worth the price. ($32.50 currently) :001_smile:

Did you actually teach with Writing Strands? Or IEW? As I recall from earlier threads, you've never used either of those programs. Informed feedback from homeschoolers who've actually used the curricula in question might be more beneficial to the rest of us. :) ETA: I thought you posted earlier that Writing Strands was published after your kids could have used it. (So you didn't teach actual children with it. ??? Whatever.) Why did you like it? What specifically did you prefer about it over other composition curricula? You said that IEW makes you "crazy", yet I believe you've posted before that you never used it. OK, fair enough, sometimes after objective consideration and thorough analysis, we decide not to use certain curricula. But what specifically about IEW makes you "crazy"? Tell us more. Sometimes the reasons you have for dismissing something make it a perfect fit for someone else. If you don't get specific, we'll never know. IEW gets bashed mostly by people who take a cursory glance and don't understand how it really works and what it looks like by the end. It would be a shame if we all dismissed curricula that might be a perfect fit for a particular child just because one anonymous person on the internet said it made them "crazy". However, I tend to have more faith and trust in known sources, and as you said about another curriculum, SWB recommends IEW, so . . . The OP asked for comparisons of specific curricula. Spouting opinions without context isn't helpful in her decision-making process. If one really wants to help others, it is better to share objective and specific insights. The rest of us can then make more informed decisions for ourselves.

There are iPad apps that allow you to use Flash. The one we like best is Photon, but I'm sure there others, if you wanted to try that route.

How about Build Our Nation? Very inexpensive used. For grades 5 and up, secular, colorful, with maps, published by Houghton Mifflin. I think it was/is used by Calvert - I believe that's where I heard about it. (We use textbooks for history, geography & science too. :001_smile: ) Or the Concise History of US (this is a link to the first one), based on Hakim's full series but drastically edited (for the better, IMO), published by K12. Also secular, colorful but not cluttered pages. There are used hardcopy teacher and student guides if you want, too. The full set consists of four small-ish books. K12 uses them for 5th and 6th grades, one book per semester.

I can't tell the age of the child you're asking for, but since you posted on the Logic Stage subforum, Analytical Grammar has a reinforcement package, designed "to keep grammar skills and terminology sharp without “doing†a daily grammar program again." It is designed for those who completed their formal grammar instruction during middle school (i.e., students of or near high school age). I haven't used it, but have my eye on it in case the need arises here.

The authors recommend The Fallacy Detective first (age 12 & up), followed by The Thinking Toolbox (age 13 & up). (You can see for yourself and find supplemental resources for both at: http://www.fallacydetective.com) We used them both in 6th grade. FWIW, my DS just commented that TFD teaches you what fallacies are, and TTT teaches you how to spot them. We have Art of Argument planned for 7th grade.